The Cygnus Queene
by YetiNPepe57
Summary: This poem is heroic verse from level 10-40, and then it is about characters around the range of levels 60-130. First you get to see what it takes to be a Maplestory warrior, bowman, or thief, then a powerful early guild becomes the allies of justice which Maple World was bruising for.
1. Cursed Sanctuary Raids

I

 _Like Faeries fighting in the fade,  
A guild of Maplestory revelers,  
Have reached the threshold and eyes paid  
Attention to the higher levelers_

Though no assassin, bandit, rogue, chief bandit,  
Or hermit ever took a blow in dark sight,  
The Tauromacis' poleaxe, touching land lit  
And any contact made spun webs of arc light,  
Thus wary foes knew well they hit their mark right.  
With potions they adventured well prepared,  
And traveled longer than a Kargos' bark might,  
For claiming items rare from battle bared,  
To drag to crowds in Channel 1 that offers blared.

The First Capes Trade With Us to deep ends turned,  
To end where, white fangs armed, lived villain's bloods.  
In caverns underground, the pillars burned:  
Metal hoops, thieves; hearts, one mage; blue moon studs,  
Fighters; and crosses, clerics; their light floods.  
They stopped in ruins, rubble past the road,  
To watch for dark-winged claws and distant thuds;  
And back and forth took portals that rooms showed,  
And met down where they hoped to snag the mother lode.

The thick haze permeated all the ground,  
And colonnades stood bathed when twilight twinkled.  
The enemy was nowhere to be found  
And caused chagrin, so that their noses crinkled.  
The pillars climbed, some gravel sparsely sprinkled,  
Their steps went through the mute air and the tall fog,  
A Kandine, a Serpent Tongue, or Hinkel'd,  
Enrapture them in daydream, and thoughts all slog:  
They waited all to find the one hight Jr. _Balrog_.

The fog was lifted to an eerie ringing,  
They saw the dirt shift when they heard with flapping,  
The torrents pushed down from above them bringing  
The foe which bounded, then with claws for wrapping  
Around a post, it swung to hunters trapping.  
One fighter, blazed in arms, two-handed sword  
Sent through the air. He missed his target, slapping  
The cold floor. When his friend for battle roared,  
Then both the fighters brought out fury that they stored.

The fighters closest to their foe attacked;  
The thieves searched out his weak point in hind quarter;  
While wizards from afar their magic stacked.  
Quick flurries sent the fighters in disorder;  
Dexterity they knew, that spare recorder.  
The two predicted lunges, and swipes wide,  
Each one to satiate his inner hoarder.  
The fighters battled with the beast in stride,  
And fought down in its range, helped by a bandit's side.

The bandit strength who stirred, commanding, dived:  
The dark lord's handiwork in savage blows  
Was in his grasp surpassed, and dark flesh rived;  
Gave six points jointly aimed, midst their fire throws,  
A technique in which knife tips 'tacked their foes:  
And stones of Perion, the Kerning hives,  
Or earth reared up from 'twixt Ellinia rose,  
Or Scarecrows Henesys had stuffed with knives.  
They fought for loot which Jr. Balrog took with lives.

He rained down meteors, cast by upraised talon;  
That through the arches, fiery alley sent,  
The meteors smoldering since now being fallen.  
Despite their lives, the thieves were valiant,  
And blades were blurred against claws salient.  
The chaos all was being self-same triggers,  
And wrought by stars, brought down shows brilliant,  
Which reft and made the ground split open fissures,  
So that eruptions flew o'er earth and cast their figures.

The fighters could not bear the heat too long,  
So they retreated, and upon a piece  
Of ice touched, which by Faery powers strong,  
Made so no pow'r would other states release,  
A boon to fighters driving back the preasse.  
They wet their beards, and the forehead crease,  
Then charged back in with effort to increase,  
At Jr. Balrog limned in histories,  
As Sleepywood's past terror for past centuries.

The bandit's luck thus far had him preserved,  
But Jr. Balrog cornered down his foe,  
And swiped with claws that reared, sharp tips that curved,  
To leave the bandit in a state of woe.  
A wizard teleported, and did glow,  
As heart-shaped earrings glinted and they swerved  
When she stood guarding him, her spells to throw,  
Which, for such circumstances well reserved,  
A cloud of poison gas spell cast that cover served.

Like dragons fought with griffons claw and talon,  
'Gainst the griffon's beak and lion paws,  
Its scales beat on, while feathers pulled were fallen,  
Jr. Balrog's fireball shot from its jaws,  
Hurled at the targets, like a wreckage draws  
A line of smoke, it missed them in their shroud.  
Then in their triple scratch, they felt his claws,  
Which found the two who cried in terror loud,  
And lifeless turned their bodies, which into ground plowed.

They battled like famed Tristan of the past,  
Their gladius blades strooke, would smash back foes,  
And massive damage deal in right spots cast,  
Their fury not abating, courage shows,  
Against the one who walked on cloven toes.  
His claws ripped through the air to counter back,  
Their magic claws could cut down who they chose,  
But fighters trained to bear the hard attack,  
Well re-encountered with hard strikes and showed no slack.

The fighters of the First Capes Trade With Us,  
Saw Jr. Balrog weaken midst their fury,  
And every chance did take, that good chance was-  
And lo! The beast was theirs to bury,  
And loot was their's to claim. Then they made hurry-  
Three magic scrolls were dropped amidst bagged mesos,  
And a Kandine, with Ilbi stars that flurry,  
Which were rewards for them who to the place goes,  
For dangerous adventure from who not a trace shows.

II

 _A snowy town in Ossyria  
Bids travelers to buy a snowshoe,  
They quests take on and trek through the tundra,  
Grey Hectors by the thousands rove through._

What more was left, with Jr. Balrog gone?  
The Sanctuary under Sleepywood  
Was emptied, leave the travelers who won.  
They used their scrolls to get to town, for food,  
Rest, and to spread news of achievements good.  
Where Chrishrama was found there was a sauna-  
Birchwillow Sauna then, the crew renewed.  
Which outside breathed in damp air cleaned by fauna,  
Making moves to find a bow or Red Katana.

They sank then lingering deep into a sleep,  
Since Sleepywood's charm was the law o'er all,  
The group could not afford their place to keep,  
When news of unexplored finds they did call  
To carry out with the guild's wherewithal,  
But first made haste to Perion to sell,  
And into channel one did First Capes fall  
With items loaded, open air in which to yell,  
Ilbis on sale for thirty million a shell.

A station opened recently to Orbis-  
A town in the skies connected down  
To where the _Hectors_ farmed would clothe the garb-less.  
Frozen tundra housed El Nath the town,  
Beyond which _Pepes_ skid, once having flown,  
Large _Yetis_ roamed at will and rumbling stepped,  
With dark companions as it was known,  
Them _Pepe_ s mounted, heights found them when leapt,  
 _Yeti and Pepe_ the two fought and by men clept.

To there had wended First Capes Trade With Us  
By strength. Alcaster had for them a guest,  
An ancient book of powers odious  
Was lost to frozen mountains and time lest  
Adventurers lent ear to his behest.  
They found a girl to lead them to a tomb  
A ring existed that its wearers blessed,  
To be found buried with one to exhume,  
They passed through Icy Fields, and went to Sharp Cliffs' doom.

Jade the young green-eyed girl from _El Nath_  
In Icy Fields Somewhere to Haunted Ground  
Led First Capes Trade With Us who took the path,  
And being led there met the Eight Lines Round.  
They quoth: "For worse, the Yetis miss to wound  
A misborne band of mostly bandits! Bah!"  
Their guests then quoth, "Aside, please move around,  
It is our turn to get at this old claw."  
By which case, groups went down, which items filled with awe.

The ring was handed o'er to Sergeant Bravo  
By Jade their guide, a fighter and his friend,  
Jake, whose identity, which with Gustavo,  
Depended on Shinkita's double end;  
A mage a mitre wore that would him lend  
An aura of refined taste, with two clerics  
Trained in Ellinia, who could friends mend,  
Their names were Alrichs, Acheron, and Eryx;  
They gave their rings to him while fair mix gave their tears fix.

They passed cold landscapes which pines filled in forests,  
 _The Western White Pine's_ five-prongs made its spines;  
 _The Western Yellow Cedar's_ bark was porous;  
And pounded rain coats, plus salves used by Hines;  
 _Subalpine Firs_ , among the latter, lines  
Itself with boughs that made it good for beds;  
Their young shoots _Sitka Spruces_ sweet designs;  
And _Shore Pine's_ bark when torn, plates sheds  
That can splint injuries—through there the journey heads.

The First Capes sought to get ten thousand furs,  
And fighters spied ahead a herd of Hectors;  
Both Ray and Senshi charged the steaming curs,  
Whose claws were fierce, but shields served as deflectors.  
Their canine pets were loot selectors.  
Senshi's mace flew, dominant o'er hounds, shed,  
And smashed their skulls, right in their map detectors.  
They fought until loot which the land surrounded,  
Gave potions made for warriors their strength compounded.

Their ops took them around to Haunted Ground-  
And five miles past, a mesa all addressed,  
Snow-covered, and all undulating found  
Plains filled with Hectors, swarming in a fest.  
And through the narrow gulch the First Capes pressed,  
Their swords came cutting through and maces clunked,  
The fighters kept the Hectors from their rest,  
So battle choked the tide for map parts junked.  
The fighters spread five fields in temperatures that plunked.

The torn cartography was brought to him,  
Alcaster pieced together pages heaved  
By Hectors, who they hunted and did trim,  
The Ancient Book of Power's, then believed  
To lay in mountains, secret was retrieved,  
Its resting place was in the Orbis Tower;  
Ten tower floors they had climbed and weaved  
Through, to that Ancient Book of Power,  
Where underneath a statue sentinels did scour.

No more would that defiant tome resorted  
To help the Black Mage in time of need.  
Its magic sealed, the book no more reported  
To casters' tries; Alcaster's purging deed  
Did that. He gave them Justice Capes, their lead  
Exclusive to ones rising fast past the sixties,  
And hemmed in gold, had slots, a luckless need;  
So upgrades made, and First Capes flew betwixt seas,  
Having equipped the right to venture to the pixies.

III

 _A magic cloud held up a city  
Explorers traveled to by ship,  
Like hanging gardens they were pretty,  
Behind the clouds where they did zip._

The city Orbis floated in the sky,  
An ocean sat below: a cloud whose power  
Derived from magic made the city fly.  
Beyond its gate, there led paths to a bower,  
There, where Nependeths travelers devour,  
The Jr. Cellions with horns foes swarm-  
These felines clawed and chewed through constant stour;  
And higher-living Cellions would show alarm,  
Betwixt Lucidas that below them bright skies warm.

Alas! All this may fit in Lucid's method  
Where by his dreams he hatched and put to use,  
To barrier Truth, he makes my death bed  
From its life-thread. This poetic muse  
Stirs not to frame recordings of that ruse,  
Or be unhelpful in the mortal realm,  
But of some decent leisure be to choose,  
A tale of simpler times for rhymes to helm,  
Which flows like figureheads men carved and formed of elm.

Below them laid the pixie's skies all terraced  
Among the clouds. Cascading levels stretched  
Extending down through clouds that block the fairest  
City that looked upon men and was hatched  
In blueprint form, then to construction latched,  
And, magic clouds granting flight, from air made bourne-  
To rest in skies, forever in minds etched.  
Townspeople met, the First Capes find with hair torne,  
A faery in distress, her garments threadbare-worn.

A picture frame clings to her hands, her pet  
Eliza, quoth then Kriel (as she was hight),  
Has run amok, and being crazed, she would let  
None come retrieve her, Kriel asked, "It does slight  
Me so, to have my pet become the cause of flight,  
And so I ask you brave ones, could you clear  
The skies Lucidas mar and clear their blight?  
Then maybe my Eliza, now in fear,  
Will come back and be sweet like my Eliza dear.

Thus to the floating gardens First Capes went,  
First past Nependeths, then by climbing ropes,  
Through gardens of three colors made ascent,  
And came to where the Cellions scrounged slopes;  
Once pushing through, the sky much wider opes,  
And gardens far displayed hung high above.  
A staircase to the skies they took, with hopes  
To breathe in thinned-out atmosphere. The drove  
Arrived at doors up at the top, which they must shove.

Into a garden dark and rank they filled;  
Wrought gates in ivy lined passed, weight clouds lurched.  
Jr. Lucidas found foes and were killed.  
Gardens of Darkness floating high besmirched  
The fair sky Orbis filled and had researched.  
Lucidas left alone did darkness heighten,  
So hoary-faced Eliza up high, perched,  
Was crowded, but two hundred less would frighten  
On the way back: explorers caught and made skies brighten.

They brought Eliza, frazzled, hoary, spent,  
To Kriel in Orbis, who thanked all the crew-  
Then Hilla's pleas attended, so they went  
To find the magic-powered trinkets to  
Restore a crystal ball to former hue.  
Its master gone, it was now up to her  
To use her mystic power which dreams knew,  
Only once Spiruna's ball was shined, they'd stir;  
But first some pixie's fleecy clouds in order were.

They went to strolling path and their way made,  
The star-capped pixies to outmatch.  
The First Capes stormed the dubious palisade,  
And clouds recaptured did their capes all catch.  
Ropes anchored by balloons saw crews detach,  
To seek the pixies out who lower dwelt.  
The air with stardust filled, left by the patch,  
When spiny suns were cast and them did pelt,  
With lunar crescents, floating, that half their damage dealt.

The magic once extracted from the cloud  
Was taken back and ground down to a paste.  
The Cygnus Empress had night terrors loud,  
When one night she in nightmares her fears faced:  
An image in the mirror her replaced,  
And darkness marred the Empress hand to toe,  
And when she woke, her conscience was defaced,  
The Cygnus Empress First Capes then let know,  
Her dream revealed connection to her mortal foe.


	2. Water Thieves

IV

 _In Ariant unrest is stirred  
When Lords will not protect or serve,  
A conflict of some interests heard,  
Areda must they reach by verve._

The Black Wings were reported last seen in  
The Nihal Desert where the people were neglected.  
A Quean's extravagance was blame to pin  
For populations by high crimes affected  
Since all her guards their rightful posts defected;  
And rumors had it Ariants' Queen drained  
Her royal vault and all her troops collected  
To pursue what the madness had sustained,  
All to buy youthful looks by magic potions gained.

The First Capes go to Ariant's defense  
Arriving at the desert's lone oasis.  
Exhaustion ailed them who passed o'er the fence  
And to a fountain which mirage replaces,  
But soon accosted were by Tigun's paces,  
Who warded it. He quoth: "You are all hereby  
Under arrest, thieves! Do not leave your places!"  
A good Samaritan by luck was nearby  
To save them from the constable, as his cuffs reared nigh.

They met a turbaned man there, hight Don Byron,  
The crew who little knew of culture there;  
He introduced himself before mad Tigun  
And quenched arrivals, with whom, now, to share,  
A hideout for the rebels in his care,  
Now in patrol to fend off lawlessness,  
Which people would help from their hideout there,  
Together to bring down the godlessness  
That milked the people to support the palace's.

To bribe the guard was a sure way to pass,  
So Byron pushed the crew to that intent.  
And here I take the mode of _Hudibras_  
A knight of errant type to reinvent.  
He stood watch armed and rather portulent,  
The fountain was tiered thrice: he ambulated,  
His scimitar in scabbard opulent,  
The words inscribed on ratiocinated,  
"The man without a sword will be humiliated."

Thus Tigun said to them: "What caprons!  
What gleaming metal work on aprons!  
The way to Ariant is lined on maps,  
Like grains of sand that through the gaps  
Fall into seas of self-same slack,  
The wealth piles here, in caverns black,  
And carpets floors, and papers stacks,  
To fall away some other place it tracks.  
Our esteemed civilization  
Bring scales to level realization,  
And want more coin to tell; ham-fisted,  
I will go from you, and you that wished it,  
From me go and bygones be bygones!  
And Tigun just a constable o'er lawns,  
If only you will give me reason,  
I who have none accept this treason  
And justice can be 'round you led,  
And you go undiscovered."  
And Byron said aside, "Ask what  
He has in mind". To feed his gut,  
They must go hunt the desert's chicken  
The Kiyos would his taste buds quicken,  
When mixed with spices Tigun carried,  
And roasted over coals that cherried.  
Now next, since Tigun was the boss,  
Some scorpion tails, their body's loss,  
Became the meat, the best part got,  
In life they served it, but now not,  
In frying pans were tossed and cooked,  
So much steam rose that skies filled looked:  
Upon these mad delights that rage,  
Tigun had dreams that crimes assuage.  
Now Tigun felt a draught, and Sand Dwarves  
Made the mission's target with scarves,  
These chests that Tigun had laid out,  
Possibly had in hinges gout-  
He and his band of crooks pay Alcadno  
With Sand Dwarves' gnomic trinkets made so  
The rivalry in Edelstein  
Could be based on the Sand Dwarves' mine.  
The Sand Dwarf's were Alcadno's equal,  
Whose horticulture worth good shekel-

They found then Jiyur next to a root-cellar  
Whose sister was imprisoned, in cells pent,  
Schegerazade hight, was a storyteller,  
And by the Queene accused of ill intent  
In writings she penned that defiance meant.  
To find his sister they would need to enter  
Doors guarded well that led to where were tent—  
Filled courtyards and then to the center,  
And pass the doors of marble, then the fasces bent o'er.

They need to make a fancy sword for tricks  
Performed by Sirin the Sword Swallower,  
And sought the Kiyos once again to fix  
The handle with a hilt of horn all o'er  
In laminated sheets craft follower  
Of Muhamad hight, the blacksmith found  
Deep in the desert where things would, though dry, flow'r,  
Produce; reached, the apprentice pommels round  
Had crafted, to their Fancy swords, disguises sound.

They scoured the castle for Schegerazade,  
And found then leaving, Hilla. Made to stop,  
She fought, the Black Wing Mage who paid,  
For bringing doom to Ariant, a hop  
Away from getting off scot-free to top  
It all, the jewels she paid to throw away,  
The people's wealth discarded like a crop  
Of tares, but first was captured in the hero's fray,  
This Hilla who control had gained with inner sway.


	3. The Place Where Time Stops

V

 _The First Capes Trade With Us searched Ludi,  
Where they hoped to gather treasure.  
_ _In dungeons, from the Vikings,  
_ _Loot failed to take in conquest's leisure._

In rest at _Ludus Lake_ were two turret's towers  
Next to a castle that some magic stranded.  
 _Lidium_ from Areda's land had powers,  
And life inside of _Legoland_ commanded.  
From Ariant they went to Orbis, handed  
The flight attendant tickets for the ride.  
The magic train's propellers by red banded,  
Made cleave space where, propellers orange made slide,  
And push, so that Ossyrian skies they took, their tide.

The First Capes made it to a factory,  
Conveyer belts transported to the floor,  
 _Brown Teddies_ that were satisfactory,  
And churned out _Roloduckies_ to the shore,  
With _Ticks_ that crawled, _Tick-tocks_ that crawled with more,  
 _Robos_ graced with forefingers and a thumb,  
 _Toy Trojans_ that were stamped with Sinon's door,  
All passed, approved, but _Chronos_ that had some  
Illness and for their uvula, a pendulum.

Ludibrium's clock tower had a dungeon,  
Where, first, they passed the factory then lower  
Inside, the Lidium built up to plunge in  
Darkness inhabitants they'd find that cower  
To see them come with brand new handler's power.  
Shivering since it felt not real warmth, a _Buffy_  
Appeared, that smiled a haunted jester's glower.  
Not left alone were _Lazy Buffies_ scruffy,  
Where of routines and cares they'd seen more than enough flee.

Secondhand, thrown, discarded, fluffing pulled  
 _Soul Teddies_ found were wand'ring in a daze,  
 _Master Soul Teddies_ had their bodies culled,  
And to a fuller height the ghoul did raise  
Itself upon the fabric of lost days,  
A parasite full-blown that in their case,  
Fit bodies better who their pain obeys.  
This inner dungeon justice would debase  
Unless their justice all it touched with fell embrace.

The First Capes sped past the _Buffoons_ who shared  
With _Klocks_ _Warped Path of Time_. _Ghost Pirates_  
While passing, they had killed whose cannons glared,  
And onto _Spirit Vikings_ went, who fire pits  
Against them all who far higher flits;  
Until _Gigantic Spirit Vikings_  
No challenge was too strong 'gainst First Capes' dire hits,  
But cannon fire was not too much their likings,  
When Vikings crossed their T against the First Capes' strikings.

The next map was _Forgotten Path of Time,_  
Rogue antimatter from _Papulutus_  
Had caused the lower floor's decay and clime,  
And made Areda Sardanapulus.  
Sultan Abdullah (the Eighth's) Metropolis,  
The Queen Areda used; he stayed in covers-  
Foundations, cr _è_ mes, and rouge weighed down her bliss,  
Beside her Azwan pageantry of lovers,  
In filaments, that lose their heat but light recovers.

 _The Phantom Watches_ roamed in colored lawns  
 _Forgotten Paths of Time_ , to watches thrall,  
Which wound themselves by prying tachions  
From nearby life, but fell, crowns crushed to stall  
What from their glass was told by short and tall.  
Their empty dials for loss of time, they cracked,  
And made their ether flow, and pouring, fall  
In sheets to lower floors the bricks had stacked,  
As Heroes showed their foes their savage blows' impact.

From there they used the portals on the right,  
And found _Klocks_ chomping with two rows of teeth,  
Which near their legs, would chomp down hard in fight,  
That _Dark Klocks_ oversized clenched while they breathe.  
They turned back time with _tachions_ that wreathe  
Their inner gears tuned to some use to harness:  
Minions of the Rogue him served beneath.  
 _Master Death Teddies_ and _Death Teddies'_ yarn less,  
To symbiotic spectres tied, aiming, did the barn-miss.

 _Forgotten Time_ contained _Grim Phantom Watches_ ,  
Whose skulls were split apart, cracked by the coldness,  
And shackled were to watches: crowns with notches  
Leeched out robbed Lidium. Their boldness  
Showed while the fighters made them hold less,  
When they carved through what formed the swirling tarn,  
And in their battles showed that they were told this:  
Grim Phantom Watches rattled chains to warn,  
Who found a _Piece of Cracked Dimension_ like a sarn.

It was all shocking without caulking,  
The Ether piled the top of bricks in nitre,  
The parts used for their interlocking,  
And caused a traveler's discomfiture  
Lest banks they formed would fall preserve, and conjure  
Up a cloud, a silver mist up-floating,  
Deep inside Time, found in a chamber  
As clouds once left suspended as re-coating  
Which grew left in _Forgotten Passage,_ Motes to groats bring.


	4. The Lost Island of Masters

VI

The First Capes hit the roads for New Leaf City  
And e'er a Carthage was, it was as pretty,  
The buyers back in Free Market would clamor  
For items bought to gavels that did hammer.  
A Serpent Tongue discovered past _Electrophants_  
Was found from _I am Robots_ by good chance,  
Whose tracks were laid outside the Krakian fields  
Who for the want of more drops spear scrolls yields-

Sixty percent plus 2 attack made writ  
In fortune waving, flapping as it flitt,  
A good step first and hesitation next;  
Some scrolls might send up fire and all the text,  
Like Dido at her pyre without her groom,  
Her pyre lined with her baldachinn and loom;  
But 'tis just sixty after all, no doom  
From Gachapon's imbalanced joy and gloom.

The Old Sapp Village helped the First Capes start;  
The name was Christopher C. Crimsonheart,  
Whose _ghost_ was anchored far from Nautilus.  
Among the pirates, he was known for this;  
He had just found the floating island-  
What fear congealed was further byland,  
The horror like what Kurt had words to shape,  
In Crimsonwood, beyond the Mall and Papé.  
The Island Ereve freshly sent them Cygnus  
Knights, but before they see the dragon eggnests,  
This new discovery must be observed,  
From Kerning subways go where heroes served.

Perfection's all I mean by Carthage,  
Unspoiled, like beginnings of true love,  
Like New Leaf City, whose loot promised smart wage,  
In vantage of the woods, and placed above  
The Crimsonwood and Prendergast thereof,  
For what else had a haunted mansion done  
But make decay all its surroundings wove?  
Since New Leaf City had beginnings none  
Other than Prendergast, of Crimsonwood's stock spun.

It was all wonder why the mansion fell,  
The place once used for making toys was vacant,  
Long since had the owner passed, but well  
Before so, with still-living breath to make chant,  
He rituals conducted, truth to make slant.  
After Sophillia died to consumption,  
He made deluxe toys filling what the fake can't.  
He went the same way soon, and in with gumption,  
Ludmilla took possession without a presumption.

Edmunds the Butler made himself a fixture  
Beside the host where guests would see the mansion.  
Ludmilla made sure guests knew of the trickster,  
The vanity room was a ghost's expansion,  
It was invincible and kept _Byzantian._  
And so the First Capes toured the Prendergast,  
Some windows cracked, it hardly seemed _Atlantian,_  
T' was all a maze as 'twere to exit past,  
Where moonlight was upon the empty rooms long cast.

It was no good to stay in Prendergast,  
When Crimsonwood Keep, ruled by Twisted Masters,  
Gave Bent Trees sentience, that ambush wast.  
The heroes had but one thing for disasters,  
Then known on sight by all the gaudy plasters  
Which Twisted Masters made for Phantom Forest.  
They power had denied to other rasters,  
And statues in the hands of a bored tourist,  
Were toppled and in ruins left, by time deplorest.

Beyond the Bent Tree lay the Crossroads,  
But first the First Capes found in Dead Man's Gorge,  
A group of bandits that, though new, no loss bodes.  
"Aread," Ray quoth, "With whom we bonds may forge!"  
The center bandit (not the one next t'storage),  
Quoth then, "We are guards of Masteria:  
This is Fiona – Joko will engorge –  
Mo has the wares, all the et cetera,  
And I am Taggrin, here by Raven Ninja's law."

Some fifty _Elderwraiths_ found burial rights.  
Taggrin put out a bounty for the villains,  
The Crimsonwood Keep, once the Shadowknights'  
Was past Forgotten Paths, where roamed in shrill tins,  
 _Stormbreakers_ with their spears and fill-ins,  
And when their bugle sounded out its cry,  
The First Capes charged and killed so that the hill thins.  
The fire brands flared to kill – or hit – to die.  
While foes impeded progress, First Capes made them try.

A hole was found, and for each one dismissing:  
The Cavern of Pain, thought to lead to Twisted  
Masters, which entered, Jack contained, then missing,  
Who John on cork in Bigger Ben had listed,  
Who being rescued, showed them what existed,  
It was like Daedalus had shared his vision:  
A labyrinth with tests was well assisted,  
Then sigils passed to their decision—  
And made were winners in the Test of Wit's division.

While they made out the details, they heads tucked,  
And fakes were separated, when with wand  
Or dagger, sword or arrow, answers lucked,  
So that their seal was passed for what's beyond-  
The next room was where Crimsonheart tasks bond.  
Forbidden Gun they found, and Master Sword;  
Each by their effort found the pieces fond:  
Staff of First Magic found, Decayed Claw stored,  
The pirates, snipers, and the wizards piled the hoard.

The Council Hall of the Grandmasters opened  
For which there was a legendary band  
Of fighters, thieves, and mages who felt hope blend,  
With terror as Margana's sceptered hand  
Had a dark menhir formed that tall did stand,  
Which needed not a second warning heeded,  
It was infused with energy all spanned;  
They fought, but shunned the bluestone as was needed,  
And focused all their damage so she was defeated.

They spy the infamous gunslinger _Rellik_ ,  
Who was the Master Guardian's keen boss.  
A double hammer flint flashed; melancholic  
Descriptions fit him best, red goggle's gloss,  
A quickly turning cloak that hid, at toss,  
The hail of arrows that stormed down upon  
The First Capes – then the cloakéd archer's dross;  
Attacks by pistol whipping proved their brawn.  
The First Capes were outgunned, who answered with blades drawn.

Nightshadows lurked from up behind the Chief  
Bandits Jake and Gustavo, found their pain, glee,  
Got rills, when cannibals searched them for beef;  
Alas by numbers easily they'd gain free,  
Who showed barbaric taste _with trinkets zany,_  
The grasp their foes had, and saw backs of ninjas.  
Since these were but the shadows that did reign free,  
Deception beat the amateurs to fringes,  
When out came _Cursayers (_ the weapon _on_ luck hinges);

And adding to the blade-work were _Angelic_  
 _Betrayals_ and _Night Raven Killi_ _çs,_  
Enough to carve the First Capes' way to Rellik.  
Lo! But appeared _Hsalf_ with wax'd red helix  
On the ground to his Mesos, to some 'zilch mix',  
And would have all ignited them, but Chief  
Bandits knew he would trigger what fire wires fix,  
Since they knew what his method was by sheaf,  
The Dark Lord's strategy in increments, and brief-

With danger closing in, from gates Hsalf,  
A thief, could open, formed _Windraiders'_ aid,  
Cast they dark litanies to save the gaffe:  
Their casts were charged in orbs that swayed,  
And pushed back gusts that their resistance made;  
Though this was winding out to be in favor-  
Chief bandits couched down to earth like a blade,  
And thro' reseating heels did little waver,  
 _Assaulters_ left behind their foes with wounds much graver.

T' is safe to say, Hsalf saw in a _flash_ ,  
A group of bandits coming to get him.  
He tried to score huge stars, his aim was trash:  
And led to being reached, his eye caught grim;  
He slashes in a gesture, on the rim  
Of yellow-red _katara_ blades to spark;  
The _Balrog Claws_ in hand were white, but dim  
When at max speed, Hsalf swung _three-an-arc;_  
And drew their consternation, to receive a mark.


	5. Survival In The Crimsonwood Keep

The bandits were afraid of who unmasks;  
Hsalf against the First Capes thus did seem,  
A battle of their shaded hits and tasks,  
But naught was all unseeable, or gleam  
Without an equal as a match to deem.  
Newly arrived were Crimson Guardians,  
And chief among them, _Red Nirg_ came full steam,  
To fight head on the challenge that begins;  
And tossed two axes in akimbo which made dins.

The archer occupied was hight, Capuchin  
Who loosed artillery at Rellik, doomed.  
Below, a warrior, peeled eyes that searched in,  
More damage from their foe's hard challenge, groomed  
In ways of war and great; Here Senshi bloomed.  
But first the two must kill these Windraiders.  
When Ray and Senshi killed, Aeolus boomed  
Or bellowed: wind was thrown and aught was played worse,  
Then fury summoned by them made them rue to faytors.

It was then Rellik, that Capuchin doomed,  
And made his life as bare as bone or done-  
But when Capuchin sent out what he groomed,  
His hawk then locked onto the target, spun,  
Before a dive bomb that the foe did stun.  
The hawk repaired and went, high from its prow;  
The Balcony now claimed in victory won,  
The fighters battled on as they knew how;  
Yon Aon or Child Phoenix, Neptune made them now.

The curtaxes their shields met anew.  
Atlantian courtyards carried on the scene,  
Where weapons Paladins and Red Nirg threw;  
He did a blade spin and did scatter clean,  
Both Ray and Senshi who his strength did ween.  
They charged their swords with magic elemental,  
And swords laid on their blows with newer sheen,  
So that, each blow preceding was developmental  
To combinations quickened, that with thunder meant hell.

Red Nirg became a pair of warriors:  
The _Azure Ocelot_ a spear did wield,  
Arrayed with fins, and whirling dark, bare cores,  
The _Scarlet Phoenix_ made nunchucku yield,  
And interchange their sibling truncheon's field.  
Red Nirg was slow, but two escaped blows soundly,  
And when they saw the chance, made damage healed:  
Their flurries came down, soused and hit back roundly  
Against their foes, when spearheads were areared profoundly.

The Paladins recast their _Parashock Guard_ ,  
And while a Flame Arch Wizard _slime_ yspread  
Its muck, _Alcides_ -like Ray rushed to knock hard  
The Azure Ocelot, who one tear shed  
With inward pain, that showed not what was bled,  
Yet dark. And natheless _combat orders_ Ray  
Eschewed, no flame or blizzard used, but threads  
Of thunder came off from his blade, and they  
The Phoenix, and the Azure Ocelot did flay.

The ones left of the Crimsonwood Keep kept  
Their hides for a good time; their mobs formed darkness  
Which the Chief Bandits used haste for, and leapt  
In range, and used the cut-back speed with starkness,  
With their assaulters that cleave to depart this,  
Who fought until the end, when wills will bend.  
While Twisted Masters left behind a stark mess,  
As Rellik tried to flee and outside wend,  
The First Capes flew, the Twisted Masters' rule to shend.

They proudly went through doors and pediments,  
And found four platforms of their purpose chartered:  
These being Loot-Trunks, panels warped with dents  
Where screws were turned in, and no padlocks shuttered.  
The First Capes got their hands on loot and bartered  
From the Free Market for the mythic price  
Deserved, when torches lit no martyred  
Scene, for the battle loot which tastes entice,  
Which earned from questing, heroes made to slice and dice.


End file.
